connecting the dots steve jobs3

8/10/2019 Connecting the Dots Steve Jobs3

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1 Answer these questions before you watch the video:

a) How do you think we can achieve success in

life?

b) Do you consider academic life the best way for

a promising future?

! Do you agree or disagree: “We learn when we fail” "omment on this#

$ %sing the help of a dictionary &nd these meanings:'ig Deal Dots

Dropped (ut Drop n

*uit %nwed +opped (ut ,elented -aively "ollege .uition



/igure it (ut +retty 0cary 0tumbled

ut /ired /alling out 0ettle

2 -ow you can read and listen to the following speech:

0tanford ,eport3 4une 123 !556

'You've got to fnd what you love,' Jobs says

.his is a prepared te7t of the "ommencement address delivered by 0teve 4obs3"8( of Apple "omputer and of +i7ar Animation 0tudios3 on 4une 1!3 !556#

9ideo of the "ommencement address# http:www#youtube#comwatch?v;%/<u,=>=@c

.hank you# am honored to be with youtoday at your commencement from one ofthe &nest universities in the world# nevergraduated from college# .ruth be told3 thisis the closest ve ever gotten to a collegegraduation# .oday want to tell you threestories from my life# .hats it# -o big deal# 4ust three stories#

The frst story is about connecting thedots.

dropped out of ,eed "ollege after the &rst = months3 but then stayed around as adropBin for another 1< months or so before really quit# 0o why did drop out?

t started before was born# Cy biological mother was a young3 unwed collegegraduate student3 and she decided to put me up for adoption# 0he felt very

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc






strongly that should be adopted by college graduates3 so everything was all setfor me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife# 87cept that when poppedout they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl# 0o my parents3who were on a waiting list3 got a call in the middle of the night asking: Ee have anune7pected baby boyF do you want him? .hey said: (f course# Cy biological

mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and thatmy father had never graduated from high school# 0he refused to sign the &naladoption papers# 0he only relented a few months later when my parents promisedthat would someday go to college#

And 1G years later did go to college# 'ut naively chose a college that was almostas e7pensive as 0tanford3 and all of my workingBclass parents savings were beingspent on my college tuition# After si7 months3 couldnt see the value in it# had noidea what wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to helpme &gure it out# And here was spending all of the money my parents had savedtheir entire life# 0o decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out (# t

was pretty scary at the time3 but looking back it was one of the best decisions ever made# .he minute dropped out could stop taking the required classes thatdidnt interest me3 and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting#

t wasnt all romantic# didnt have a dorm room3 so slept on the oor in friendsrooms3 returned coke bottles for the 6I deposits to buy food with3 and wouldwalk the G miles across town every 0unday night to get one good meal a week atthe Hare rishna temple# loved it# And much of what stumbled into by followingmy curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on# @et me give you onee7ample:

,eed "ollege at that time oJered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in thecountry# .hroughout the campus every poster3 every label on every drawer3 wasbeautifully hand calligraphed# 'ecause had dropped out and didnt have to takethe normal classes3 decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this# learned about serif and san serif typefaces3 about varying the amount of spacebetween diJerent letter combinations3 about what makes great typography great#t was beautiful3 historical3 artistically subtle in a way that science cant capture3and found it fascinating#

-one of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life# 'ut ten yearslater3 when we were designing the &rst Cacintosh computer3 it all came back to

me# And we designed it all into the Cac# t was the &rst computer with beautifultypography# f had never dropped in on that single course in college3 the Cacwould have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts# And sinceEindows Kust copied the Cac3 its likely that no personal computer would havethem# f had never dropped out3 would have never dropped in on this calligraphyclass3 and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that theydo# (f course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when was incollege# 'ut it was very3 very clear looking backwards ten years later#



Again3 you cant connect the dots looking forwardF you can only connect themlooking backwards# 0o you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect inyour future# Lou have to trust in something M your gut3 destiny3 life3 karma3whatever# .his approach has never let me down3 and it has made all the diJerencein my life#

My second story is about love and loss.

was lucky M found what loved to do early in life# EoN and started Apple in myparents garage when was !5# Ee worked hard3 and in 15 years Apple had grownfrom Kust the two of us in a garage into a O! billion company with over 2555employees# Ee had Kust released our &nest creation M the Cacintosh M a yearearlier3 and had Kust turned $5# And then got &red# How can you get &red from acompany you started? Eell3 as Apple grew we hired someone who thought wasvery talented to run the company with me3 and for the &rst year or so things wentwell# 'ut then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a

falling out# Ehen we did3 our 'oard of Directors sided with him# 0o at $5 was out#And very publicly out# Ehat had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone3and it was devastating#

really didnt know what to do for a few months# felt that had let the previousgeneration of entrepreneurs down B that had dropped the baton as it was beingpassed to me# met with David +ackard and 'ob -oyce and tried to apologiNe forscrewing up so badly# was a very public failure3 and even thought about runningaway from the valley# 'ut something slowly began to dawn on me M still lovedwhat did# .he turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit# had beenreKected3 but was still in love# And so decided to start over#

didnt see it then3 but it turned out that getting &red from Apple was the bestthing that could have ever happened to me# .he heaviness of being successful wasreplaced by the lightness of being a beginner again3 less sure about everything# tfreed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life#

During the ne7t &ve years3 started a company named -eP.3 another companynamed +i7ar3 and fell in love with an amaNing woman who would become my wife#+i7ar went on to create the worlds &rst computer animated feature &lm3 Toy Story 3and is now the most successful animation studio in the world# n a remarkable turnof events3 Apple bought -eP.3 returned to Apple3 and the technology we

developed at -eP. is at the heart of Apples current renaissance# And @aurene and have a wonderful family together#

m pretty sure none of this would have happened if hadnt been &red from Apple#t was awful tasting medicine3 but guess the patient needed it# 0ometimes life hitsyou in the head with a brick# Dont lose faith# m convinced that the only thing thatkept me going was that loved what did# Louve got to &nd what you love# Andthat is as true for your work as it is for your lovers# Lour work is going to &ll a large



part of your life3 and the only way to be truly satis&ed is to do what you believe isgreat work# And the only way to do great work is to love what you do# f youhavent found it yet3 keep looking# Dont settle# As with all matters of the heart3youll know when you &nd it# And3 like any great relationship3 it Kust gets better andbetter as the years roll on# 0o keep looking until you &nd it# Dont settle#

My third story is about death.

Ehen was 1G3 read a quote that went something like: f you live each day as ifit was your last3 someday youll most certainly be right# t made an impression onme3 and since then3 for the past $$ years3 have looked in the mirror everymorning and asked myself: f today were the last day of my life3 would want todo what am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been -o for toomany days in a row3 know need to change something#

,emembering that ll be dead soon is the most important tool ve ever

encountered to help me make the big choices in life# 'ecause almost everything Mall e7ternal e7pectations3 all pride3 all fear of embarrassment or failure B thesethings Kust fall away in the face of death3 leaving only what is truly important#,emembering that you are going to die is the best way know to avoid the trap ofthinking you have something to lose# Lou are already naked# .here is no reason notto follow your heart#

About a year ago was diagnosed with cancer# had a scan at G:$5 in the morning3and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas# didnt even know what a pancreaswas# .he doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that isincurable3 and that should e7pect to live no longer than three to si7 months# Cy

doctor advised me to go home and get my aJairs in order3 which is doctors codefor prepare to die# t means to try to tell your kids everything you thought youdhave the ne7t 15 years to tell them in Kust a few months# t means to make sureeverything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family# tmeans to say your goodbyes#

lived with that diagnosis all day# @ater that evening had a biopsy3 where theystuck an endoscope down my throat3 through my stomach and into my intestines3put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor# was sedated3but my wife3 who was there3 told me that when they viewed the cells under amicroscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form

of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery# had the surgery and m &nenow#

.his was the closest ve been to facing death3 and hope its the closest get for afew more decades# Having lived through it3 can now say this to you with a bitmore certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:



-o one wants to die# 8ven people who want to go to heaven dont want to die toget there# And yet death is the destination we all share# -o one has ever escapedit# And that is as it should be3 because Death is very likely the single best inventionof @ife# t is @ifes change agent# t clears out the old to make way for the new# ,ightnow the new is you3 but someday not too long from now3 you will gradually

become the old and be cleared away# 0orry to be so dramatic3 but it is quite true#

Lour time is limited3 so dont waste it living someone elses life# Dont be trappedby dogma M which is living with the results of other peoples thinking# Dont let thenoise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice# And most important3have the courage to follow your heart and intuition# .hey somehow already knowwhat you truly want to become# 8verything else is secondary#

Ehen was young3 there was an amaNing publication called The Whole EarthCatalog3 which was one of the bibles of my generation# t was created by a fellownamed 0tewart 'rand not far from here in Cenlo +ark3 and he brought it to life with

his poetic touch# .his was in the late 1Q=5s3 before personal computers anddesktop publishing3 so it was all made with typewriters3 scissors3 and polaroidcameras# t was sort of like oogle in paperback form3 $6 years before ooglecame along: it was idealistic3 and overowing with neat tools and great notions#

0tewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog3 and thenwhen it had run its course3 they put out a &nal issue# t was the midB1QG5s3 and was your age# (n the back cover of their &nal issue was a photograph of an earlymorning country road3 the kind you might &nd yourself hitchhiking on if you wereso adventurous# 'eneath it were the words: 0tay Hungry# 0tay /oolish# t wastheir farewell message as they signed oJ# 0tay Hungry# 0tay /oolish# And have

always wished that for myself# And now3 as you graduate to begin anew3 wish thatfor you#

0tay Hungry# 0tay /oolish#

.hank you all very much#

Taken from:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

6 After watching the video3 answer these questions:

") How do you Koin the dots of your life?





D) How does 0teve got his dots Koined?

8) Ehat could be a one R word to describe his life e7perience?

/) Ehat does SdeathT mean to you3 today?

connecting the dots steve jobs3

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